That One Line
by JustClem
Summary: Words are worth more than letters, lines, and dots. Words, if used correctly, can be more powerful than rapiers and scythes and guns and magic. Words can help us rise, and words can make our enemies fall.
1. R

**At around early-late July (or maybe earlier), one of the members of the CRWBY posted a tweet about finishing one of the hardest, most influential and powerful lines of the volume. I believe it was Barb, the VA of Yang, who said this (but I might be wrong, who knows?)**

**They said it took hours and many takes to really make that line convincing, and that it was an "emotional" one.**

**Obviously, Fox and I freaked out when we found out.**

**We discussed over what the line will be, and who'll be the one to say it, and in what situation will the line be spoken. He has his own theories, and I have mine. **

**(Mine are obviously the better ones, but for his sake, let's pretend both of our theories are equally good.)**

**I proposed an idea to make it a sort of challenge between us; create a short fiction diving into what we believe the line will be. It was partly a joke, and we both forgot about it quickly, but now that Volume 7's rolling around, I kinda wanna make this concept into a reality.**

**So… here ya go!**

* * *

"Your mother died, and so will you," said Salem, caressing her cheek with her long, bony fingers. Ruby winced at her sharp nails, and the way they carved unending scars into her skin.

Red. Red was everywhere. It was on the lines of her face. The splotches on her body, dripping down to the floor. Her tattered cape.

Red was in the devil's kingdom.

"Did you really believe you'll make it out alive?"

No. She didn't. She'd hoped that the others would, but never her. She supposed a part of her had known all along - even before she'd known of Salem, of the Relics, and of the Gods - that the end of her road wouldn't be a bed and a beautiful morning or a sunset at a warm beach.

She was a martyr.

Martyrs were not meant to live.

Ruby looked around, and lost the energy to cry. All of her friends, their eyes unopened, their breathing labored, and their souls accepting their fate.

It was a horrible sight to see.

This was her nightmare, and this was her reality.

"_Ruby,"_ a voice said that stopped her from breathing, and from looking at the monster in front of her.

Who-?

Who was that?

"_Ruby."_

She should know who this was. She should. But she was so, so exhausted. Too exhausted to remember.

A soft laugh. "_Don't go to sleep yet, dear."_

Why? Why not? She needed it, needed it more than anything, and it would be no use for her not to shut her eyes. She'd lost. They'd all lost. Humanity was no more. Salem had won. Evil had triumphed over good. All was lost. There was no hope.

"_Nonsense. There's always hope."_

And it came to her; who this voice belonged to. Something warm sparked within her. Something she'd not felt for a long time.

"You're wrong."

Salem stopped in her tracks, and looked at her with wide, angry eyes, annoyed that she'd been interrupted from enjoying her victory. "What?"

"I said you're wrong."

Salem looked stricken. Offended, even. As though she'd just been told that Grimms weren't as scary as she made them out to be.

It was hard to move. Every cell in her body was on fire. And every bone and muscle didn't work cooperatively. Still, she tried to stand. Even when the effort made her fall back down again - chin hitting the rocky floor, blood pouring out of her mouth, earning a laugh from Salem - she struggled, and she fought.

"What do you hope to gain, child?" Her voice was bitter, slithery, and cold as always, but there was something more to it. Something that sounded like surprise and curiosity, and maybe desperation.

Ruby stared, and Ruby breathed.

What did she hope to gain?

She looked up. The sky was red, and the clouds were black. There were no hints of the calm blue moon, or the white sun, or even the shy yellow stars, but she pretended they were there, anyways. Above and just out of reach.

It gave her clarity. And it made her smile.

"Hope," Ruby said, on her knees. "Because that's all that matters. That's what separates us from Grimm. We have hope. Even on the verge of losing, we keep it close to our chest and never let go."

She swayed as she stood. The pain wasn't gone, but she pretended they were never there in the first place.

"Hope, because it's the only thing we've got, and the only thing keeping us going, all this time. History has proven that."

She didn't need to summon the power of the silver eyes. It came to her unprompted, as if it knew what she needed.

"Hope, because my mother taught me so. Because she taught me that people who left are never really gone. Because stories end with happy endings."

And Ruby glared at Salem, her powers ready to be unleashed.

"And our story isn't over yet."

* * *

**Obviously, I don't think RWBY will have their epic fight with Salem in this Volume, but I do think something like this will happen, either with Watts, or Cinder, or whoever.**

**Summer Rose's face has already been revealed in Volume 6. There was a new voice actor joining in on the show, stating that her character is interesting. I'm not saying Summer's gonna come back to live, but... yeah, um, something like this might happen.**

**Fox, if you're reading this, you have to do the challenge too, now! (Or, I mean, if you don't want to, that's okay.)**


	2. W

"C'mon now, Weiss," said Father, looming over her like a wolf looming over a rabbit, his sneer and closeness dizzying her. "Just give up. Take your heritage. What is rightfully yours. What you've wanted since the beginning."

Weiss saw herself, alone and afraid and wanting to be useful in some way. It had been cold. It had always been cold. Back then, she hadn't known what warmth was, what happiness was, what a real family was. Back then, she'd been a caged, pampered, spoilt little bird who would say yes to everything Daddy said because Daddy was always right.

Now, no longer the scared kid, or even the hesitant 17 year-old, Weiss refused to cower, for that would mean bowing down, and she'd never bow down to a pig like him. "At what cost?"

Was it fair to even call him her father?

"At no cost at all, darling."

Weiss snapped her head to look at him, gritting her teeth. "Liar." The words came out in a sizzling seethe.

"Oh, but it is true." He took a step back, his shoulders moving in this odd, almost cartoonish way as he did so. "Sure, you'll have to stop hanging out with those delinquents. But it's not like they've ever mattered, right? This quest of yours to 'save the world' is all just faux play."

Weiss took a step back, a step away from him, not in fear, but in befuddlement. A subtler, more subdued kind of shock. "How dare you," she said, not knowing how to continue her words.

Jacq- Father gave her a strange, challenging look. "What is it you wish to say?" it seemed to ask.

Weiss breathed. And Weiss shuddered. And Weiss spoke.

"How dare you belittle my friends like that. How dare you belittle me like that." She clutched her heart, almost desperate. "I am your daughter! Not your legacy, not your trophy! I am a human being!"

"What is this nonsense?" He slithered, and tilted his head up. He looked offended, as though he was the one ridiculed, as though he was the one who'd suffered for the past 18 years.

"This. Is not. _Nonsense_." Weiss barely realised the frosty feeling of her Aura enveloping her, in-synch with her rapidly-flustering anger. "You don't get to decide who I am and who I should be with. You've shown me nothing but grief and terror, convincing me that the real world was as horrid as it is here."

Her voice echoed louder the more it strengthened. She took her eyes off of him to stare at the seemingly unending hallways of this mansion. It was too tall, too wide, too big.

How had she ever been able to call this her home?

"You lied to me." Despite the venom of rage coiling deep inside of her, her voice was calm. Eerily so. Father took a step back, fuming, trying to regain some of his dignity, of his refined sense, of his facade of being in control. "If only I'd not listened to you, perhaps I wouldn't feel as much pain…"

But that was untruthful now, was it? The pain shaped her to be who she was. WIthout it, she wouldn't have met them - the rosy little scythe-wielder; the gold-haired, rambunctious brute; and the enigmatic beauty, always shrouded in black.

"Now, what are you on about, child?" He bristled. "Surely, you-"

The harsh sound of the slap rang throughout the cold, empty, hollow joke of a home.

"Do not call me 'child'." She stared down at him, for the first time. He cowered and shook from the hit. Pathetic. She hadn't even activated her Aura. He looked at her as though he was finally realising that she was no longer his puppet to control or his toy to play with.

Had she really been afraid of this man?

"I will claim what is rightfully mine. I will take over this company, and I will better it. I will bring back the honor of my family name, right all the injustice you've done, and I will do so without your interference, because I am Weiss Schnee, and this is my kingdom!"

She brought her hand up, and he flinched.

She lowered it, and looked at him with a sudden clarity.

"You're a pathetic man, Jacques."

He didn't object. Why would he? It was the truth.

Weiss left that room with all her fears gone, only to be greeted with the warmth of her family - her real family.

And Weiss smiled. With tears, she smiled.

* * *

**This, to me, is the more plausible case. I mean, c'mon! They're in Atlas. Weiss' Dad is in Atlas! I smell tension, people!**


End file.
